


Roombasitting

by Ayumu (396Ayumu)



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Gaku is an idiot, Gen, Humor, Pet Roombas, Roombas, Save Ryuu, soba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 08:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20288131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/396Ayumu/pseuds/Ayumu
Summary: Babysitting: the care of a child or children while the parents are out. Roombasitting: entrusting your life to your friend goes terribly wrong.





	Roombasitting

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This here is my entry for the IDOLiSH7 Flashbang 2019!
> 
> As always, when I write roombas, my summaries are ominous.
> 
> This fic is a collaboration with [Mintiel](https://twitter.com/ymtlovemail) on twitter! 
> 
> Any kind of feedback here or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/396Ayumu) is very much appreciated and will make me happy for the rest of the day.
> 
> Thanks in advance and I hope you have fun reading!

Yamato knocked on the door and waited. He hugged a bundle of blankets and grumbled to himself. He didn’t want to do this, but there was no other choice. He could hear some noise from inside of the apartment and, after a while, Ryuu opened the door.

“Ah, come in, Yamato-kun. I was expecting you.”

“Thank you, Tsunashi-san.” Yamato stepped inside, still holding the blankets, and Ryuu led him to the living room.

“What do you want to drink?”

“Ah, water is okay.”

Ryuu paused for a bit and observed Yamato. His tone was tired, as always, but it felt somehow different. They had talked it over, but it seemed like Yamato still did not want to accept it. Ryuu hesitated, but still went to the kitchen to get water for both of them. In the meantime, Yamato sat down at the table, carefully placed the blankets on it and started undoing the bundle. Ryuu arrived with the water and sat down across from him.

“Tsunashi-san.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll entrust Musashi to you.”

“Leave it to me, Yamato-kun.”

“Thank you so much, Tsunashi-san” said Yamato, but it looked like he didn’t want to say it. He didn’t want to leave Musashi. The bundle was now fully undone, and from the inside appeared Musashi, along with his charger and home base, and a notebook with roomba stickers on it.

Yamato passed the notebook to Ryuu. “Here, Tsunashi-san. Everything you need to take care of Musashi is in here… And then please write here when you charge him and for how long, and also when you clean his filters. Feel free to let him run around. Actually, can I see him run around for a bit…?”

“Sure, it’s not a problem. I’ll make sure to write everything he does.” Ryuu felt concerned at Yamato’s despairful tone of voice so he tried to accommodate whatever he said.

Yamato smiled slightly. “Thank you”, he said, placed Musashi on the ground and pressed the power button. A few beeps and buzzes later, Musashi started exploring the room. It was a new place, so he bumped into the table and sofa more than normal.

“It seems he likes your floors, I’m glad.”

“Yeah.”

Neither of them said any more and Yamato was just observing how Musashi tried to climb onto the carpet. Right when he achieved it, Yamato’s phone started buzzing and the screen lit up.

“Oh, Mitsu is calling. I need to go.” He bent down and petted Musashi. “Goodbye, buddy,” he said, but his tone held no joy.

Both of them stood up but, while Ryuu headed to the front door straight away, Yamato lingered for a bit more, walking slowly and backwards in order to keep Musashi on his line of sight. When they left the living room, Yamato turned to walk forward and sighed.

“Remember to charge him.”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

“And to clean him.”

“Don’t worry, Yamato-kun.”

Ryuu opened the door and Yamato went outside, but he didn’t leave and continued worrying over Musashi.

“Write everything on the notebook!”

“I will.”

“Call me if anything happens! I’ll have my phone on me at all times.”

“I will call so don’t worry and go.”

“Okay, thank you. Please make sure to-”

A honk interrupted their conversation. “Old man! Hurry up, we’re gonna be late!”

“Come on, Yamato-kun. Musashi-kun will be fine. I’ll charge him, clean him, write everything and call if anything happens, so go on. See you tomorrow.”

Yamato hesitated but after another honk, he gave in. He bid Ryuu farewell, and then yelled “Goodbye, Musashi!” into the house and reluctantly left.

Ryuu went back inside, where Musashi’s buzzing sound broke the usual atmosphere of the house. Ryuu checked the clock: he still had some time before work, but not a lot. He set up Musashi’s charging base and docked him, making sure he knew where it was, before leaving him moving as he wanted.

He picked up the notebook and started reading it. Yamato had written down all of Musashi’s specifications, including the serial number, probably in case he got lost or stolen for real the next time. There were also a great number of cute sketches of Musashi from different angles. At the end of the notebook, there was a daily report on Musashi’s activities. Ryuu took a pen, added today’s date and wrote a small report.

“Today, Yamato-kun went to work out of town and he is staying overnight. Thus, it is Tsunashi Ryuunosuke who will report on Musashi-kun’s condition for the next 24h. For now, Musashi-kun has settled on the living room and has access to a carpet and his charging base. I will check up on him in 6h once today’s work is finished.”

He closed the notebook, left it on the table and left for work. Musashi had been moving around for a while, so he gradually approached the dock and began resting. Silence fell inside the house.

A couple of hours went by and, when Musashi was almost charged, the silence was thoroughly broken as the door opened and arguing voices could be heard from outside.

“I don’t understand why everyone was confused!”

“You can’t expect people to hear your answer and not be confused.”

“Why? My answer was perfectly normal.”

“No, it wasn’t. There’s no way the best place for a first date is a soba stall.”

“But you can sit down, talk and, most importantly, you can eat soba. It’s perfect!”

“No, it isn’t.”

The two continued their bickering until they reached the living room, where Gaku paused.

“…Tenn”

“What now?”

“There’s a roomba… in our living room…”

“Oh, it’s Nikaido Musashi. IDOLiSH7 had to work out of town, so Ryuu said he’s looking after him for Nikaido Yamato.”

“Aha, so it’s Musashi, I see. We have to welcome him somehow, then… Ah! I know!”

Gaku’s face lit up as if he’d come up with the best idea of the century, and Tenn looked at him sceptically as if he’d come up with the worst idea of the millennium. Gaku did not see Tenn’s expression, or he saw it but paid it no mind, as he ran to the kitchen and started busying about.

It seemed like preparing “the glorious idea” would take a while, so Tenn went to his room and changed to more comfortable clothes, only to come back to Gaku holding a bowl of soba, grinning and walking towards Musashi.

“Really, Gaku?” Tenn sighed.

Musashi responded to Gaku and started beeping, or maybe he just coincidentally finished charging at that exact moment. Gaku took the first option as the truth, and his smile got wider.

“Yes, I was right! Soba was the right choice!”

“… Gaku, no. Roombas do not run on soba.”

“That’s wrong. _Everything_ can run on soba.”

Gaku ignored everything Tenn had to say, crouched in front of Musashi and started putting soba on the floor in front of him. In response, Tenn sighed again: nothing could stop Gaku when it was about soba.

Musashi finished his booting-up sequence and started cleaning forward, towards where the grey noodles lay. Gaku looked excitedly at Musashi gobbling up the food, when the roomba started slowing down and making weird squishy and mechanical sounds. In response, Tenn approached from the side and turned Musashi off.

“I told you it wouldn’t work. And now we might have broken Nikaido Yamato’s precious pet and we have soba all over the floor. I’m not cleaning this up.”

“This isn’t right. Soba is the universal energy, it makes no sense that he would break down because of this. Is there something wrong with the floor? This makes no sense.”

Tenn looked incredulously at Gaku and answered as sarcastically as he could.

“Oh, I know what happened. Humans are fundamentally different from roombas, so the soba we eat should be different too. Maybe if you gave him electricity-based soba it would work better. You should figure out how to make that.”

Gaku turned his head from the soba-stricken floor towards Tenn. “You’re a genius,” he said, in an extremely serious tone. “I should go work on an electricity soba. Maybe we can sell it at Yamamura Soba for people like Nikaido who would go out for soba with their robot companions.”

Tenn rolled his eyes at Gaku. “Fine, you do you, Gaku, but at least clean this up first.”

Gaku nodded, “you’re right, I should do that,” and left to find the cleaning supplies.

Satisfied with not having to clean up the mess, Tenn took out his phone, snapped a picture at it, captioned it “_Gaku did it again_” and sent it to Ryuu.

Gaku was now back and started cleaning the floor. He then picked up Musashi, placed him on the table and started cleaning his filters too, when Tenn’s phone dinged with a text from Ryuu: “_I’m almost home. Please don’t let Gaku near Musashi-kun_”. After some more texts, Tenn interrupted the cleaning session.

“Gaku.”

“Yeah?”

“Ryuu says he’ll clean the roomba.”

“Huh? No, it’s okay, I’ll finish this.”

“He said to please not let you clean him,” Tenn followed, “and you know that Ryuu practically never asks for anything.”

“That’s true. Well, I’ll go make some electric soba then!”

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t get electrocuted.”

Ryuu hurried back from work and got home to Tenn leisurely reading a book on the sofa, Gaku doing who knows what in the kitchen, and Musashi dismantled on the table.

“Oh, welcome back, Ryuu.”

“Tenn… Why did you let Gaku…?”

Ryuu couldn’t even finish the sentence before getting a look from Tenn that seemed to say, _“Do you expect me to stop Gaku when it’s about soba?”_, so he sighed instead, and continued cleaning Musashi. Luckily, Tenn had stopped Musashi in time, so there were not many noodles inside his filters and it looked like Musashi would work again after thoroughly cleaning him.

All of a sudden, the lights went out and they heard a loud noise from the kitchen. Tenn dropped his book, took his phone as a light source and ran to the kitchen.

“Gaku, you idiot! I told you to be careful!”

“Huh? Gaku?” Ryuu placed Musashi’s now clean filters back on the table and, confused, followed behind Tenn.

“Yes! My electric soba is complete!”

“No, it isn’t, you moron!”

Tenn shined the flashlight inside the kitchen. Gaku was there, ominously giggling to himself, with a bowl of soba on his hands and two peeled wires by his feet.

“Dumbass!! What the heck are you doing?!”

“Huh? Making soba, of course.”

“Sure, and _almost killing yourself in the process,_ you idiot!”

“But now we have something to feed Musashi!”

“Gaku… You’re not planning on giving that to Musashi-kun, right?”

“Huh? I am, though.”

“No! Musashi-kun may look alive but he’s a robot! He doesn’t eat! He runs on electricity!”

“But I added electricity…”

“No! I don’t want him to break down!”

“Fine. I won’t feed it to him.” Gaku said and turned around to put the soba down on the counter. “Spoilsport…”, he mumbled.

Ryuu sighed. “I’ll go reset the circuit breaker.”

“Gaku, do not do this ever again.”

“But, Tenn…”

“No. I don’t want your cause of death to be soba. It’s dumb.”

“Tenn, soba is not du-”

“You have to be alive to eat soba.”

“That’s true… Okay, I promise.”

“Good,” Tenn smiled, and Gaku felt like the world had become brighter. Quite literally, too, since the lights just came back on.

They cleaned up the soba and the wires before going back to the living room, where Ryuu was reassembling Musashi.

“I hope he still works…”

He was about to turn him on when his phone rang. Ryuu looked at the screen and his face went pale, but he still answered the phone call.

“H-hi, this is Tsunashi Ryuunosuke.”

“Hello, Tsunashi-san, this is Yamato.”

“Oh… H-hello, Yamato-kun...”

“You don’t sound too happy… Are you okay? Is Musashi okay?”

“Huh? Oh, y-yeah, yeah, he’s okay. I’m just tired from work…”

“I see… Say, Tsunashi-san, could you do me a favour?”

“Of course! What is it?”

“Can you put the phone next to Musashi? I want to hear him buzz.”

“Oh, uh, um… Sorry, I can’t.” Ryuu apologised. He didn’t know if the cleaning he did was enough to get him to work again, he couldn’t risk this.

“Eh? Why not?”

“He’s, umm… Out of battery! Yes. He’s out of battery right now. He’s charging.”

“Ohh, okay. Yes, I see. We shouldn’t disturb his rest.”

“Yes, that’s how it is. Well then, Yamato-kun. See you… tomorrow…”

“See you tomorrow, Tsunashi-san. Please, get some rest… you don’t sound too well.”

“Thank you, Yamato-kun. I will do that. Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

Ryuu cut the call and prepared himself for the worst.

“Please work...”

He placed Musashi on the floor and pressed the power button. To everyone’s relief, a few beeps and buzzes greeted them; Musashi was alive and well.

Ryuu then took Musashi’s notebook and opened it on his previous report. He had to write what happened, but he was scared. What if Yamato took it badly? He wouldn’t blame him, though. Who in their right mind would feed soba to a _roomba?_ Apparently, his groupmate. He sighed, gathered his courage, and started to write.

“I am now back home from work.”

But he wasn’t capable of writing the ridiculous truth.

“Gaku and Tenn came back before me and were playing with Musashi-kun when he got stuck. They powered him off, and I cleaned him when I got home. After a thorough cleaning, we started him up again and he was working as normal. There were no other problems. He’s currently charging.”

And he closed the notebook. He felt bad not explaining the whole truth, but since Musashi hadn’t been too affected, he did not want to worry Yamato. Everything he wrote was true as well, so he was not lying.

Luckily, nothing else happened during the rest of the day or the night. Musashi happily cleaned the apartment and happily charged himself at his home base. Everything was normal.

When it was almost time for Yamato to come pick Musashi up, Ryuu disconnected the home base and was bundling Musashi up in the blankets with all of his belongings. As soon as he finished, the bell rang. Punctual, as always when it concerned his roomba. Ryuu went to open the door, bringing Musashi with him.

“Hi, Yamato-kun. I was expecting you.”

“Hello, Tsunashi-san. Is he…?”

“Here, yes,” Ryuu gave the blankets to Yamato, “I wrote everything that happened on the notebook.”

Yamato hugged the blankets and undid a corner of the bundle to check on Musashi.

“Huh, he looks a bit different somehow.”

“H-he does? Are you sure y-you’re not imagining it?”

“Hmm… Yes, I’m sure.”

Ryuu was having trouble looking Yamato in the eye. He had lied once on the phone and withheld the truth in his report.

“M-maybe it’s because he cleaned a house he wasn’t used to?”

“Oh, that could be it. Well, I trust you, Tsunashi-san, so I’m sure it’s nothing.”

That sentence made the guilt within Ryuu overflow. He had to tell him. Yamato had to know. It wasn’t right to keep the truth from him.

“Yamato-kun… A-actually… I’m sorry!”

Yamato was taken aback. “Why are you apologising, Tsunashi-san?”

Ryuu started explaining everything that had happened the day before: the soba, the picture, rushing back from work, cleaning Musashi, lying to him on the phone, the incomplete report, and Musashi being fine again; everything except the blackout incident. As he carried on with his story, Yamato’s face got paler and paler and, as soon as he finished, he put the bundle on the floor, took Musashi out and powered him on.

Musashi beeped and buzzed in greeting, indicating that nothing was wrong with him. Yamato smiled tiredly and powered him off. Colour was returning to his face.

“Tsunashi-san.”

Ryuu gulped. Yamato stood up and looked at him directly in the eyes.

“Thank you very much for telling me the truth. And thank you very much for taking care of Musashi. He looks happy.”

But Yamato would look into pet hotel options for the next time he needed a roombasitter.


End file.
